Yeah.... but what if (radical concept here, prepare yourself!) you backed up your files before you transferred them to the empeg... or even right afterwards. You can purchase a large hard drive used for no other purpose than keeping those backups for about $150, or you can copy all those MP-3 files onto CDRs for a cost of less than 10 cents per hour saved.

I know, your playlist information doesn't get saved, and I guess there's a lot of work to be lost there... but at least you don't have to re-rip and re-encode and try and track down all those pirated CDs that are now in your wife's car. Watch out, Tony, we'll start calling you Long John Fabris. Do you have your parrot, your eye patch and your peg leg yet? ;-)

You know, there might be a really good compromise from a legal/piracy point of view: don't allow the empeg to export music files, but do allow it to export the playlist information. Would that work? That seems like such an obvious idea it must have been discussed on the BBS before, but I don't recall seeing it.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"